Who has the power?

Recently, I ran across this question on Instagram (@eduspark):

How can teachers help students develop meaningful skills for success in an unpredictable world?

Here’s what a Human School reply might sound like…

Develop meaningful mindsets for an unpredictable world alongside our learners so that together, we can do useful things in an unpredictable world.

If the question is about transformation (and not just continuing to do what we’ve always done with traditional power structures and a little PD here and there), then the answer has to begin with mindset…shifting the way we frame power and the person.

Power…it’s not us telling learners what is meaningful or unpredictable. We co-design that…meaning can emerge from collaborative curiosity. Agency all around. That’s human-centered.

Then, we get our hands dirty. Few of us adults likely don’t have these meaningful skills now. We’ll need to build them at the same time as our students…on new mindsets..a new way of framing living and thriving in “an unpredictable world.”

We can’t expect students to have skills and we get a pass.

So two mindshifts can help us reframe the question:

Start with the human: Navigating from prioritizing the needs of the system to prioritizing the needs of the people.

Design collaboratively: Navigating from designing alone to designing with others

How might you begin to answer the question: How can teachers help students develop meaningful skills for success in an unpredictable world?